1WGAJ1226.9+3332: a high redshift cluster discovered by Chandra

We report the detection of 1WGAJ1226.9+3332 as an arcminute scale extended X-ray source with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The Chandra observation and R and K band imaging strongly support the identification of 1WGAJ1226.9+3332 as a high redshift cluster of galaxies, most probably at z=0.85 +- 0.15, with an inferred temperature kT =10 (+4;-3) keV and an unabsorbed luminosity (in a r=120" aperture) of 1.3 (+0.16;-0.14) x 1e45 erg/s (0.5-10 keV). This indication of redshift is also supported by the K and R band imaging, and is in agreement with the spectroscopic redshift of 0.89 found by Ebeling et al. (2001). The surface brightness profile is consistent with a beta-model with beta=0.770 +- 0.025, rc=(18.1 +-0.9)" (corresponding to 101 +- 5 kpc at z=0.89), and S(0)=1.02 +- 0.08 counts/arcsec**2. 1WGAJ1226.9+3332 was selected as an extreme X-ray loud source with FX/FV>60; this selection method, thanks to the large area sampled, seems to be a highly efficient method for finding luminous high z clusters of galaxies.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ main journal. Uses emulateapj.st

Multiphysics simulation of corona discharge induced ionic wind

Ionic wind devices or electrostatic fluid accelerators are becoming of increasing interest as tools for thermal management, in particular for semiconductor devices. In this work, we present a numerical model for predicting the performance of such devices, whose main benefit is the ability to accurately predict the amount of charge injected at the corona electrode. Our multiphysics numerical model consists of a highly nonlinear strongly coupled set of PDEs including the Navier-Stokes equations for fluid flow, Poisson's equation for electrostatic potential, charge continuity and heat transfer equations. To solve this system we employ a staggered solution algorithm that generalizes Gummel's algorithm for charge transport in semiconductors. Predictions of our simulations are validated by comparison with experimental measurements and are shown to closely match. Finally, our simulation tool is used to estimate the effectiveness of the design of an electrohydrodynamic cooling apparatus for power electronics applications.Comment: 24 pages, 17 figure

An Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Atlas of Seyfert Galaxy Light Curves: Search for Periodicity

The Deep Survey instrument on the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer satellite (EUVE) obtained long, nearly continuous soft X-ray light curves of 5-33 days duration for 14 Seyfert galaxies and QSOs. We present a uniform reduction of these data, which account for a total of 231 days of observation. Several of these light curves are well suited to a search for periodicity or QPOs in the range of hours to days that might be expected from dynamical processes in the inner accretion disk around ~10^8 M_sun black holes. Light curves and periodograms of the three longest observations show features that could be transient periods: 0.89 days in RX J0437.4-4711, 2.08 days in Ton S180, and 5.8 days in 1H 0419-577. The statistical significance of these signals is estimated using the method of Timmer & Konig (1995), which carefully takes into account the red-noise properties of Seyfert light curves. The result is that the signals in RX J0437.4-4711 and Ton S180 exceed 95% confidence with respect to red noise, while 1H 0419-577 is only 64% significant. These period values appear unrelated to the length of the observation, which is similar in the three cases, but they do scale roughly as the luminosity of the object, which would be expected in a dynamical scenario if luminosity scales with black hole mass.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, accepted by Ap

A Medium Survey of the Hard X-Ray Sky with ASCA. II.: The Source's Broad Band X-Ray Spectral Properties

A complete sample of 60 serendipitous hard X-ray sources with flux in the range $\sim 1 \times 10^{-13}$ \ecs to $\sim 4 \times 10^{-12}$ \ecs (2 - 10 keV), detected in 87 ASCA GIS2 images, was recently presented in literature. Using this sample it was possible to extend the description of the 2-10 keV LogN(>S)-LogS down to a flux limit of $\sim 6\times 10^{-14}$ \ecs (the faintest detectable flux), resolving about a quarter of the Cosmic X-ray Background. In this paper we have combined the ASCA GIS2 and GIS3 data of these sources to investigate their X-ray spectral properties using the "hardness" ratios and the "stacked" spectra method. Because of the sample statistical representativeness, the results presented here, that refer to the faintest hard X-ray sources that can be studied with the current instrumentation, are relevant to the understanding of the CXB and of the AGN unification scheme.Comment: 28 pages plus 6 figures, LaTex manuscript, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, Figure 5 can retrieved via anonymous ftp at ftp://ftp.brera.mi.astro.it/pub/ASCA/paper2/fig5.ps.g

XMM-Newton observation of the Lockman Hole; I. The X-ray Data

We report on the first deep X-ray survey with the XMM-Newton observatory during the performance verification phase. The field of the Lockman Hole, one of the best studied sky areas over a very wide range of wavelengths, has been observed. A total of ~100 ksec good exposure time has been accumulated. Combining the images of the European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) detectors we reach a flux limit of 0.31, 1.4 and 2.4 X 10^{-15} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1}, respectively in the 0.5-2, 2-10, and 5-10 keV band. Within an off-axis angle of 10 arcmin we detect 148, 112 and 61 sources, respectively. The log(N)-log(S) relation in the three bands is compared with previous results. In particular in the 5-10 keV band these observations present the deepest X-ray survey ever, about a factor 20 more sensitive than the previous BeppoSAX observations. Using X-ray spectral diagnostics and the set of previously known, spectroscopically identified ROSAT sources in the field, the new sources can be classified. XMM-Newton detects a significant number (~40%) of X-ray sources with hard, probably intrinsically absorbed X-ray spectra, confirming a prediction of the population synthesis models for the X-ray background.Comment: 6 pages, based on the new A&A style file (included), to be published in A&A 365 (2001, special XMM issue), one page contains color image

Institutional Experience with Voriconazole Compared with Liposomal Amphotericin B as Empiric Therapy for Febrile Neutropenia

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90034/1/phco.27.7.970.pd

XMM-Newton spectroscopy of an X-ray selected sample of RL AGNs

This paper presents the X-ray spectroscopy of an X-ray selected sample of 25 radio-loud (RL) AGNs extracted from the XBSS sample. The main goal is to study the origin of the X-ray spectral differences usually observed between radio-loud and radio-quiet (RQ) AGNs. To this end, a comparison sample of 53 RQ AGNs has been also extracted from the same XBSS sample and studied together with the sample of RL AGNs. We have focused the analysis on the distribution of the X-ray spectral indices of the power-law component that models the large majority of the spectra in both samples. We find that the mean X-ray energy spectral index is very similar in the 2 samples and close to alpha_X~1. However, the intrinsic distribution of the spectral indices is significantly broader in the sample of RL AGNs. In order to investigate the origin of this difference, we have divided the RL AGNs into blazars and ``non-blazars'', on the basis of the available optical and radio information. We find strong evidence that the broad distribution observed in the RL AGN sample is mainly due to the presence of the blazars. Furthermore, within the blazar class we have found a link between the X-ray spectral index and the value of the radio-to-X-ray spectral index suggesting that the observed X-ray emission is directly connected to the emission of the relativistic jet. This trend is not observed among the ``non-blazars'' RL AGNs. This favours the hypothesis that, in these latter sources, the X-ray emission is not significantly influenced by the jet emission and it has probably an origin similar to the RQ AGNs. Overall, the results presented here indicate that the observed distribution of the X-ray spectral indices in a given sample of RL AGNs is strongly dependent on the amount of relativistic beaming present in the selected sources.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Resolving the extragalactic hard X-ray background

The origin of the hard (2-10 keV) X-ray background has remained mysterious for over 35 years. Most of the soft (0.5-2 keV) X-ray background has been resolved into discrete sources, which are primarily quasars; however, these sources do not have the flat spectral shape required to match the X-ray background spectrum. Here we report the results of an X-ray survey 30 times more sensitive than previous studies in the hard band and four times more sensitive in the soft band. The sources detected in our survey account for at least 75 per cent of the hard X-ray background. The mean X-ray spectrum of these sources is in good agreement with that of the background. The X-ray emission from the majority of the detected sources is unambiguously associated with either the nuclei of otherwise normal bright galaxies or optically faint sources, which could either be active nuclei of dust enshrouded galaxies or the first quasars at very high redshifts.Comment: Nature article in pres

Fast Evolutionary Adaptation for Monte Carlo Tree Search

This paper describes a new adaptive Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) algorithm that uses evolution to rapidly optimise its performance. An evolutionary algorithm is used as a source of control parameters to modify the behaviour of each iteration (i.e. each simulation or roll-out) of the MCTS algorithm; in this paper we largely restrict this to modifying the behaviour of the random default policy, though it can also be applied to modify the tree policy